The present invention relates to the general field of appliances for cooking under pressure, and in particular to appliances of the pressure cooker type comprising a receptacle and a cover secured in a hermetically sealed manner onto the receptacle, the pressure cooker being provided with safety and monitoring devices.
Among the safety and monitoring devices of receptacles which operate under pressure, the present invention concerns particularly a device for controlling a flow limiting valve mounted in the cover of the appliance, the device including a cover handle in which is mounted a bolt, or locking device which is radially slidable between two end, or abutment positions. In one of the abutment positions of the bolt, the valve is liberated and in the other of the abutment positions the valve is maintained in a position for escape of fluid. It is already known to provide a flow limiting valve in the cover of a cooking appliance in order to permit the escape of air imprisoned in the receptacle at the start of cooking. Thus, French Patent No. A-2585229 describes a pressure cooker whose cover is equipped with a flow limiting valve housed in a body mounted in an opening arranged in the cover. The valve is intended to block the seat of the body starting from a certain internal operating pressure, and to allow air contained in the receptacle to pass to the outside when the pressure in the receptacle is below a certain level. In its upper position of closing the seat, the upper extremity of the valve comes to engage in an orifice formed in a bolt mounted to be radially movable in the cover. This latter position thus corresponds to that in which the cover is closed and the pressure cooker is under pressure. When the user wishes to open the pressure cooker, he first opens the safety valve permitting steam under pressure to be evacuated, which correspondingly liberates the flow limiting valve which comes to occupy its lower position and frees the bolt. This latter can then be placed in movement by a push button activated by the user's finger in order to come to occupy an unlocking position permitting removal of the cover from the receptacle. Inversely, during closing, the user, after having put the cover in place on the receptacle and having rotated the cover to a specific position, must bring the bolt into the position which permits free lifting of the flow limiting valve while acting on the push button. At the start of the cooking phase, cool air is evacuated via the valve which remains in its lower position as long as a certain temperature level and minimal pressure have not been attained.
Such a known device suffers essentially from inconveniences associated with the presence of a handle which extends essentially radially and which must of necessity have a length sufficient to permit the hand of a user to be able to freely activate the push button for freeing the bolt. This cumbersome arrangement is perceived in a particularly negative manner by users, particularly in view of the limited space generally available in a kitchen for storage of appliances, on the one hand, and taking into account the increased risks of overturning appliances which have parts, such as handles or other elements, that protrude from the main body of the appliance.
Finally, such a device presents the drawback of being operated manually, when consumers presently look for appliances which require little or no manual operation.